Skip to content
Logo

Hackaday

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Hackaday.io
  • Store
  • Hackaday Prize
  • Submit
  • About

CastAR Shuts Doors

Polygon reports CastAR is no more.

CastAR is the brainchild of renaissance woman [Jeri Ellsworth], who was hired by Valve to work on what would eventually become SteamVR. Valve let [Jeri] go, but allowed her to take her invention with her. [Jeri] founded a new company, Technical Illusions, with [Rick Johnson] and over the past few years the CastAR has appeared everywhere from Maker Faires to venues better focused towards innovative technologies.

In 2013, Technical Illusions got its start with a hugely successful Kickstarter, netting just north of one million dollars. This success drew the attention of investors and eventually …read more

Hacking an Inspection Microscope

Sometimes I need to be able to take photographs of very small things, and the so-called macro mode on my point-and-shoot camera just won’t cut it. And it never hurts to have an inspection scope on hand for tiny soldering jobs, either, though I prefer a simple jeweler’s loupe in one eye for most tasks. So I sent just over $40 off to my close friend Alibaba, and a few weeks later was the proud owner of a halfway usable inspection scope that records stills or video to an SD card.

Unfortunately, it’s only halfway useable because of chintzy interface …read more

MRIs: Why Are They So Loud?

My dad was scheduled for his first MRI scan the other day, and as the designated family technical expert, Pop had plenty of questions for me about what to expect. I told him everything I knew about the process, having had a few myself, but after the exam he asked the first question that everyone seems to ask: “Why is that thing so damn loud?”

Sadly, I didn’t have an answer for him. I’ve asked the same question myself after my MRIs, hoping for a tech with a little more time and lot more interest in the technology he or …read more

Practical IoT Cryptography on the Espressif ESP8266

The Espressif ESP8266 chipset makes three-dollar ‘Internet of Things’ development boards an economic reality. According to the popular automatic firmware-building site nodeMCU-builds, in the last 60 days there have been 13,341 custom firmware builds for that platform. Of those, only 19% have SSL support, and 10% include the cryptography module.

We’re often critical of the lack of security in the IoT sector, and frequently cover botnets and other attacks, but will we hold our projects to the same standards we demand? Will we stop at identifying the problem, or can we be part of the solution?

This article will focus …read more

How To Build Your Own Convertible (For Under $500)

It’s a common sight in the farming areas of the world — a group of enterprising automotive hackers take a humble economy car, and saw the roof off, building a convertible the cheapest way possible. Being the city dwelling type, I always looked on at these paddock bashing antics with awe, wishing that I too could engage in such automotive buffoonery. This year, my time would come — I was granted a hatchback for the princely sum of $100, and the private property on which to thrash it.

However, I wasn’t simply keen to recreate what had come before. I …read more

From The Blog

See all blog entries
  • Fly Across the Water on a 3D-Printed Electric Hydrofoil

    2 Comments

    By Dan Maloney | June 28, 2017

    Paddleboards, which are surfboard-like watercraft designed to by stood upon and paddled around calm waters, are a common sight these days. So imagine the surprise on the faces of beachgoers when what looks like a paddleboard suddenly but silently lurches forward and rises up off the surface, lifting the rider on a flight over the water.

    That may or may not be [pacificmeister]’s goal with his DIY 3D-printed electric hydrofoil, but it’s likely the result. Currently at part 12 of his YouTube playlist in which he completes the first successful lift-off, [pacificmeister] has been on this project for quite a …read more

  • Wooden Laptop Enclosure: New Life for Old Thinkpad

    3 Comments

    By Inderpreet Singh | June 28, 2017

    Technology is designed to serve us and make our lives better. When a device gets outdated, it is either disposed of or is buried in a pile of junk never to be seen again. However, some individuals tend to develop a certain respect for their mechanical servants and make an effort to preserve them long after they have become redundant.

    My relationship with my first laptop is a shining example of how to hold onto beloved hardware way too long. I converted that laptop into a desktop with a number of serious modifications which helped me learn about woodworking along …read more

  • Copper, Brass, Mahogany, and Glass Combine in Clock with a Vintage Look

    8 Comments

    By Dan Maloney | June 28, 2017

    No two words can turn off the average Hackaday reader faster than “Nixie” and “Steampunk.” But you’re not the average Hackaday reader, so if you’re interested in a lovely, handcrafted timepiece that melds modern electronics with vintage materials, read on. But just don’t think of it as a Nixie Steampunk clock.

    No matter what you think of the Steampunk style, you have to admire the work that went into [Aeon Junophor]’s clock, as well as his sticktoitiveness –he started the timepiece in 2014 and only just finished it. We’d wager that a lot of that time was spent finding just …read more

  • New Ransomware Crippling Chernobyl Sensors

    41 Comments

    By Jack Laidlaw | June 28, 2017

    [The BBC] reports Companies all over the world are reporting a new ransomware variant of WannaCry. this time it has taken out sensors monitoring the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site.

    We have all heard of the growing problem of ransomware and how Windows XP systems seem especially susceptible to WannaCry and it’s variants which were originally zero day vulnerabilities stored up by the NSA then leaked by WikiLeaks. Microsoft did release a patch. It’s been everywhere in the media but it still seems that some people didn’t get the memo.

    Ukrainian state power plants and Kiev’s main airport, among others, have …read more

  • An Enchanted Rose For A Beauty

    7 Comments

    By James Hobson | June 27, 2017

    Being a maker opens up so many doors in terms of ways to romance one’s partner through passion projects. If their passion is Disney films, then you may handily make them the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast for their birthday. Easy-peasy.

    In addition to the love and care that went into this build, redditor [Vonblackhawk2811] has included a set of LEDs, salvaged from cheap flashlights and electronic candles, which are controlled by four toggle switches and offer multiple lighting selections — candlelight, soft white, colour cycling, and bright white — to appropriately set the mood. As if that …read more

  • Machine Learning IDE in Alpha

    5 Comments

    By Al Williams | June 27, 2017

    Machine is an IDE for building machine learning systems using TensorFlow. You can sign up for the alpha, but first, have a look at the video below to see what it is all about.

    You’ll see in the video, that you can import data for a model and then do training (in this case, to find a mustache in an image). You’ll see the IDE invites an iterative approach to development since you can alter parameters, run experiments, and see the results.

    The IDE syncs with “the cloud” so you can work on it from multiple computers and roll back …read more

  • Dual-Purpose DIY Spot Welder Built with Safety in Mind

    10 Comments

    By Dan Maloney | June 27, 2017

    Ho-hum, another microwave oven transformer spot welder, right? Nope, not this one — [Kerry Wong]’s entry in the MOT spot welder arms race was built with safety in mind and has value-added features.

    As [Kerry] points out, most MOT spot welder builds use a momentary switch of some sort to power the primary side of the transformer. Given that this means putting mains voltage dangerously close to your finger, [Kerry] chose to distance himself from the angry pixies and switch the primary with a triac. Not only that, he optically coupled the triac’s trigger to a small one-shot timer built …read more

← Older posts

Featured Projects

See all projects
InspectorBot

InspectorBot

by Dennis
Device for Seismic Noise Analysis

Device for Seismic Noise Analysis

by michael d.

From the Store

See all products
Hackaday Classic Tee

Hackaday Classic Tee

$10.00
3
MeArm - Pocket Sized Robot Arm

MeArm - Pocket Sized Robot Arm

$49.97
4.5
Stickvise

Stickvise

$29.97
0
Hackaday Omnibus 2015

Hackaday Omnibus 2015

$17.00
5
Bus Pirate v3.6 (THM180C4M)

Bus Pirate v3.6 (THM180C4M)

From $27.27
5
Hackaday.io Gold Logo Tee

Hackaday.io Gold Logo Tee

$10.00
5

Trending Projects

See all projects
Solder Sniffer 9000

Solder Sniffer 9000

by Jon Thomasson
TritiLED

TritiLED

by Ted Yapo
Electric mountainboard with CAN bus + Android app

Electric mountainboard with CAN bus + Android app

by Luke
SN76477 Retro Synth Module

SN76477 Retro Synth Module

by technohutch
DE0-Nano FPGA to VGA output

DE0-Nano FPGA to VGA output

by Bruce Land
MakerFoundry

MakerFoundry

by polyfractal

Search

Never miss a hack

Follow on facebook Follow on google+ Follow on twitter Follow on youtube Follow on rss Contact us

Subscribe

If you missed it

  • The PDP-1: The Machine that Started Hacker Culture

    22 Comments
  • MEMS: The Biggest Word in Small

    17 Comments
  • Hacking an Inspection Microscope

    37 Comments
  • Catastrophic Forgetting: Learning’s Effect on Machine Minds

    17 Comments
  • Go Small, Get Big: The Hack that Revolutionized Bioscience

    11 Comments
More from this category

Categories

Our Columns

  • Wooden Laptop Enclosure: New Life for Old Thinkpad

    3 Comments
  • A Crash Course in Thingiverse Customizer

    15 Comments
  • Hackaday Links: June 25th, 2017

    10 Comments
  • Fail of the Week: Tracking Meteors with Weather Radio

    16 Comments
  • Amazing Motion-Capture of Bendy Things

    13 Comments
More from this category

Recent comments

  • me on Fly Across the Water on a 3D-Printed Electric Hydrofoil
  • Something on New Ransomware Crippling Chernobyl Sensors
  • me on Fly Across the Water on a 3D-Printed Electric Hydrofoil
  • Nitori on CastAR Shuts Doors
  • JohnScnow on An Enchanted Rose For A Beauty
  • me on Wooden Laptop Enclosure: New Life for Old Thinkpad
  • JohnScnow on An Enchanted Rose For A Beauty
  • Jack Laidlaw on New Ransomware Crippling Chernobyl Sensors
  • Elliot Williams on An Hour to Surface Mount
  • JohnScnow on Machine Learning IDE in Alpha

Now on Hackaday.io

  • Jon Thomasson has added a new log for Solder Sniffer 9000.
  • Jon Thomasson has added a new log for Solder Sniffer 9000.
  • Ted Yapo has added a new log for TritiLED.
Logo
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Hackaday.io
  • Store
  • Hackaday Prize
  • Video
  • Submit a tip
  • About
  • Contact us

Never miss a hack

Follow on facebook Follow on google+ Follow on twitter Follow on youtube Follow on rss Contact us

Subscribe to Newsletter

Copyright © 2017 | Hackaday, Hack A Day, and the Skull and Wrenches Logo are Trademarks of Hackaday.com
Powered by WordPress.com VIP
Cancel